Inspired by Creative Director Nicole Hanley Mellon’s recent trip to Havana and discovery of artist Enrique Rottenberg’s photographs, this collection has captured both the vibrancy and decay of the storied city in a completely modern way. 

Especially innovative is the original print on this long vest and short shorts, meant to mimic the colorful murals that have been dirtied and stripped from years of weathering the elements. At Hanley though, the “dirt” is actually a metallic overlay that gives just the right amount of edge and interest to the striped print beneath it.

This is the uniform of the effortlessly cool girl. The collection, meant to be mixed and matched to create a complete wardrobe, is a study in proportion, texture and color. With trapeze tops and peplum skirts, head scarves and vests - relaxed and casual but with a polish.

Now all I want to do is sit in on a Havana patio in a lace-up blouse sipping a mojito in the sun. 

The two incredible women behind M. Martin, Alex Gilbert and Jennifer Noyes, are the living embodiment of their brand. Simple, elegant and feminine, the pair have created a collection of super wearable, incredibly chic separates that are as at home at an Upper East Side dinner party as they are in a Brooklyn preschool drop-off line. 

With a tightly controlled neutral color palette with just the right pop of red, the collection is refined in this completely relaxed way that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There’s a modern 70’s vibe to the collection - equal parts Annie Hall and Jerry Hall so that you can really play with the styling of the individual pieces to suit your own lifestyle and personality. 

When the Princess of Saudi Arabia attends your  NYFW presentation, you know you’ve got a collection with a commanding spirit. The Spring-Summer 2016 presentation from Carlos Polite is a truly sublime collection with artistic tailoring in class with an early McQueen or John Galliano - really! 

He mixes textures and fabrics to sculpt innovative silhouettes. There’s an edge balanced with delicate femininity to his designs; leather harnesses and studded chokers are paired with muted prints and drape-y silhouettes for a completely modern look. 

The chartreuse bird-print fabric was the stand-out star of the show. From a full pants/shirt/trench combination to a weird and wonderful crop top/over skirt pairing, there’s a real sense of playfulness and delight in materials with Polite’s designs. I’d love to see someone like Kiernan Shipka rocking a Polite piece on a red carpet sometime soon; it’s a collection perfect for Hollywood’s young, risk-taking set. 

When you’re engaged to David Copperfield, it’s a prerequisite that you have a flair for the dramatic, right? When I walked in to the magicians four-story penthouse apartment to see a private showing of a short film featuring Chloe Gosselin’s F/W 15 shoe collection, I was met with vintage carnival games and rides - spooky meets chic - all blended together with some of New York’s most fabulous fashionistas. It was a fun, unexpected break from the usual NYFW madness! 

The next day I saw the full presentation of her most current collection, which was inspired by both the Nevada desert and China’s Rainbow Mountains - in other words, it was a mystical, stiletto-ed romp through the natural world. The combination of two distinctly different landscapes resulted in a neutral, earthy color palette with sudden bursts of color sprinkled throughout. Gosselin incorporated lace-up details, rounded toes, colored metallics and sky-high heights to pay service to the magical environments that so inspired her designs.